The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — Using the state Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner as his platform, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon harshly criticized Gov. Matt Blunt’s decisions to cut Medicaid spending and sell off some college loan assets.
Nixon, who plans to challenge the Republican Blunt next year, said Friday that Blunt was ignoring the problems his decisions were causing for hundreds of Missouri families and prospective college students.
He told the audience of almost 1,000 that he wouldn’t go the typical event’s route of merely poking fun at the GOP, instead saying he wanted “an adult conversation” about what he considered as Blunt’s mistakes “while other states are moving forward.”
He said Blunt and the Republican-controlled Legislature aren’t telling Missourians the full truth when they say the state can’t afford to reinstate health care coverage to the estimated 455,000 people left without insurance after the latest changes in Medicaid — including low-income, elderly and disabled people, as well as 55,000 children.
For instance, he noted legislative leaders are still pushing tax cuts.
“Make no mistake, the money is available,” Nixon said.
He also pointed out that Missouri receives less money from federal Medicaid than it puts in because the cuts have led to a $1 billion reduction in federal matching funds.
“We’re a health care donor,” he said, saying the lost money now goes to “Massachusetts, Illinois and Kansas,” where state officials have expanded their use of Medicaid.
Nixon also said the governor’s plan to sell off some of the assets held by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority would lead to higher tuition for students and families already facing higher education costs.
Blunt wants to use $350 million from those sales to cover a backlog in construction projects on university campuses across the state. The Senate is expected next week to vote on the proposal, as well as measures establishing new scholarships and capping tuition increases to the annual rate of inflation.
John Hancock, a spokesman for Blunt, dismissed Nixon’s comments.
“Jay Nixon is dead wrong about the state of the state, and he’s dead wrong about who’s avoiding the truth,” Hancock said.
During Friday’s dinner, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, who lost to Blunt in the 2004 gubernatorial race, raised some of the same issues and Nixon and drew applause when she said, “This state can’t handle four more years of Matt Blunt.”
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
